Before the Turn
by Milkbonez
Summary: This story details the series of events that NiGHTS experienced which essentially caused her rebellion against Wizeman the Wicked. Rating subject to change as I write new chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Wizeman, the god of Nightmare, hovered above the seemingly endless dark energy. With his jeweled collar and long black cloak, he was like a mighty tower of negativity. Six metal hands, matching his silvery head, floated open before him, allowing a purple eye in each palm to observe anyone who dared to enter his chambers. Presently they glowered down at two of his First Level Nightmaren servants, both crouched in a bow with a fist over each of their hearts.

His voice reverberated as he spoke. "Reala, Nights, I am pleased by the progress that my army is making in conquering Nightopia. However, more and more Nightopian dream worlds are forming with each step forward. We must find an alternative, more efficient method of invading the light of the Night Dimension to slow it down."

"Yes, Master," both generals said in unison. They barely raised their heads enough to make eye contact with their god.

"There is a more pressing matter at hand currently," Wizeman went on. "I have sensed a rare Red Ideya has appeared in Nightopia. One of you is to go out, collect it, and deliver it to me personally."

Reala took in a breath, but before he could say anything, Nights piped up, "I will go fetch that Ideya for you, Master. Reala is much better than I am at making plans for invasion; he can do that while I am out."

Wizeman's glare remained unblinking, unwavering. "Very well. Do not fail me, Nights. You both are dismissed."

The two First Levelers left their master's chambers. Reala locked eyes with Nights and raised one eyebrow. "Are you sure you're capable of making this snatch? Courage Ideya-holders can be a challenge."

Nights gave a brash nod and replied, "It's not like this is my first Courage-holder. I'll do fine."

"No, but it would only be your third." He paused to look her over, her outfit full of cheery violets and pinks, a couple of prominent stars on the front of her vest, the red gem on her shirt that gleamed in Nightopian light. "I just want you to be cautious, because they tend to fight back. You know that."

"Relax, Reala. No Visitor is a match in strength for a Nightmaren." A smile of pride grew on Nights's face. "Master won't be disappointed. In fact, he might even acknowledge what a valuable Nightmaren I am."

Reala quirked a brow at her final comment but said nothing on it. He placed one hand on his partner's shoulder and squeezed. "Then, I wish you luck."

Nights clapped him on the back, and they went their separate ways.

Nights glided up out of Nightmare proper, out of the Dark Ocean that swirled and shimmered underneath the faint glow of the stars in the sky. She was focused straight ahead, on the night sky, and soon she reached the stars to see them for what they really were. Each one was a large window into a dream world—Nightopia. The light of the Night Dimension. They drifted around in the air; the lower, brighter windows indicated sleeping Visitors. Dimmer ones were signs that the Ideya was hiding within the dream itself, rather than in the Visitor's heart. Her fellow Nightmarens glided out of windows that flickered and turned black, always with an Ideya in their clutches.

She examined numerous windows, sensing the Ideya that created each world. It did not take her long to find one made from Courage.

Upon entering the dream world, Nights received a flash of information in her mind about the Visitor. A young boy, about fifteen years old. Works on a ranch with his family. Fears wild predators killing farm animals, and having machinery malfunction in a way that injures him for life.

She appeared high above a canyon nearby an expansive, green plain. There were small barn houses here and there all across the plain, but the First Leveler had her eyes on the large red barn some ways off. With a grin, she made a beeline towards the plains and transformed into a hawk to better blend in.

She circled above the barn, keen eyes locked on the enormous doors, but after long period of no activity, she settled on its wooden roof. She could hear the boy's voice from within. Though Nights could not hear exactly what he was saying, the Visitor certainly sounded excited. She chuckled to herself—what great delight it would be to turn that laughter into shrieking.

Other chattering caught her attention, and Nights turned her head. A group of Nightopians, dressed in straw hats and overalls, was approaching the barn doors. The little pixies babbled in their unintelligible tongue, bouncing in midair and grinning amongst themselves like children in a candy store. One of them was holding a blue chip, a large, glowing blue ball that served as the Nightopians' food source.

In that instant, it had occurred to Nights that these were Nightopians in their true, pixie-like forms rather than disguised as farm animals, or something else to let them blend in. The Visitor must have been introduced to Nightopia before. It was not an uncommon thing, but it was always a surprise to know a Visitor was aware of the Night Dimension.

One of the Nightopians knocked on the barn doors. The Visitor's voice called out—likely a phrase like "Just one minute!"—then, with a creak, one of the barn doors began to open in a slow, outward arc.

The Nightopians gathered in a cluster in front of the Visitor as he emerged. The black-haired boy certainly looked the part of a rancher, in his cowboy boots and dusted shirt and vest. The dark shade of his olive-brown skin could have been partly the result of long hours outdoors. Nights stepped back a bit to be better hidden—a hawk like her would not be purple and pink.

The Visitor said to the Nightopians, "Hello! I think I finally worked out all the kinks to my creation. May I have that blue chip?"

He held out his hand to let the lead Nightopian give him the ball, and then he and the pixies headed back inside.

Nights flew some ways away from the barn door and landed on the ground in the knee-high grass, keeping low to the ground to avoid being seen. Inside the barn, the Visitor was crouched next to a black-striped white figure, pressing the blue chip into the side of it. He shut a small door as if closing the compartment on a machine. Nights squinted. The clean, white machine whirred to life, and the Nightopians cheered. It was a horse, a unicorn, she realized as the Visitor wandered around to the front of it, beaming with pride.

"I call it the _Nightopian Flockguard 2.0_ ," he told his companions. "It should be even faster than the _Flockguard 1_ , with a stronger horn for bashing predators. Now, let's take it out for a test run."

An idea sparked in Nights's head. Taking to the air, she flew back behind the barn to avoid being seen, and she morphed into a wingless, serpentine dragon. Her Persona mask changed shape just enough to fit on her face. If he was afraid of mangling himself on broken machinery, she would use his robotic equine to her advantage.

She heard mechanical humming and hooves trotting along the grass before they broke off into a spring. She darted out from behind the barn and gave chase to the Visitor on his _Flockguard_ , black mane flowing behind the metal beast. Nightopians hovering around the barnyard shrieked in panic. The boy looked back to see her right at his tail, and he squeezed the sides of the _Flockguard_ with his legs. The robot picked up speed, easily evading Nights, until she drill-dashed. The energy that formed a wide shield around her as she dashed burned through the grass over which she flew so close.

The Visitor gave the side of his unicorn's neck a quick rub, and it turned sharply around to the left, avoiding Nights. She stopped dashing and wheeled around to keep up the pursuit, but when she began dashing again, she realized the gap of space between her and the robot's hind legs was widening gradually. What a nuisance. Her dragon form was one of her slowest forms. She morphed back into her true, humanoid form and continued to drill-dash. The gap of space began to close until the Visitor made his steed curve around yet again.

Nights again stopped her dash in order to turn with more accuracy, but a bright light surrounded the unicorn as if _it_ were dashing _her_. She narrowly dodged it, the sparkles from her sleeves getting caught instead in the _Flockguard_ 's fiery shield. It and its rider came out of their dash and turned around yet again to charge Nights. They missed her.

The Nightmaren flew some distance away and transformed into her dragon form again. She curled her long body as she flew in figure-8s, taunting the plucky Visitor. Just as she wanted, they charged her yet again. She looped up and around so they passed her, and she rushed at the unicorn's heels, clamping down hard. With a few harsh tugs, she managed to rip off the lower hind leg of the _Flockguard_ , making it fall and the Visitor go flying sideways.

Flinging away the metal leg, Nights flew over to the fallen boy, who rolled over onto his back, his face and hands scraped. A rumble rose up in her throat, "This is the end of the ride for you, Visitor."

She lunged. The Visitor held up his arm to protect himself. Before Nights had a the chance to pull back, she rammed mouth-first into the barbed spines of a round, spiked shield. Her shriek echoed across the open plain; her blood dripped a glowing white from her nose and tongue. She backed off, licking her chops and spitting out her blood, as her mind raced. This was a lucid Visitor, the most dangerous type of Visitor a Nightmaren could encounter—they could kill a Nightmaren. He was obviously skilled at creating objects from thin air, which was far more advanced than any lucid she had seen or heard of before. How could she take the Ideya of a Visitor with power like that?

Her serpentine body was crushed under a hefty boulder. She screamed out again, her breath cut off by its weight. In panic, she morphed into her humanoid form, but her hips and legs were trapped underneath the great rock.

The black-haired boy got up from the ground and dusted himself off. He gibed, "You sure are scary, you big, bad 'maren!" His shield had already disappeared, and he conjured a sword in his right hand. Nights's heart pounded, and her breath quickened. The Visitor limped towards her, favoring his left leg. "You chose the wrong person to pick on today. Any last words before I turn you into dream dust?"

Face scrunched in a grimace, Nights writhed under the boulder. Her arms clawed at the peaceful green grass under her to no avail. The gem on her shirt dug into the skin of her chest.

He was standing over her, gripping the sword in his hand.

Nights whimpered, "Please, don't kill me." How pathetic she sounded! "Let me up…"

"So you can ruin my Nightopia? Fat chance." The Visitor raised his sword, the tip pointing down, aimed at her back.

"Wait, wait!" She held up her hand. "I'll… I'll leave you and this place alone if you spare me."

He paused. "And why should I trust you?"

"You have my word." Her remark was half-hearted.

"The word of a _Nightmaren_. You aren't the first Nightmaren I've met, you know. I've had to wrestle my Ideya away from a few of you. Why should I trust you to hold your word?"

Nights struggled to think through the pain. Why… why… The Ideya! "Because I value my life more than your Ideya. And if I look like I'm going to go back on my word once I'm free, you have the power to stop me." She huffed.

Relief washed over her when the Visitor lowered his sword to his side. "You have a point." He stumbled back a few meters away from her and lifted his hand. The boulder rose into the air and landed with a thud in the grass beside her. He warned, "No tricks."

Nights clenched her teeth as she lifted off, not daring to bend her thighs or knees. "N-No tricks…" she agreed. Panting, she took one quick look at the ranch boy Visitor and almost thanked him before gliding with limp muscles towards the canyon again.

* * *

Nights's muscles ached so badly that she had trouble kneeling before her master when she returned to Nightmare.

Two of Wizeman's hands levitated straight towards her, purple eyes locked on her as the god demanded, "Do you have my Courage Ideya?"

Anxiety filled her stomach; her heart fluttered. She took one deep breath. "My apologies, Master, but I… wasn't able to procure the Ideya." Wizeman's eyes flared orange, and Nights blurted, "The Visitor was a lucid—"

One of his hands enclosed her. Her screams of pain echoed throughout her master's chambers. Wizeman brought her close to his face, easily twenty times larger than the boulder she had been crushed beneath earlier. "You failed to obtain the Ideya!"

Running out of breath, she gasped for air and hollered, "But the lucid almost—!"

"Be muzzled!"

He squeezed more tightly, and she gave one last yelp before holding her cries in behind clenched teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut to avoid looking at her master's fiery eyes, or at his metallic, eyeless face.

"You promised me the Ideya, Nights! An Ideya of Courage! Do you not understand how valuable, how powerful the Ideya of Courage is? You must _risk your life_ for it! This is not, I am aware, the first time you have encountered a lucid Visitor. You should have known how to deal with it."

"M-My apologies…"

His hand opened just enough to give his thumb room to dig its claw into her back. His other fingers curled to keep his shrieking servant from escaping his hold. As he sliced through her clothing and flesh, he raged, "Contemptible slave, you don't seem to understand the severely of your failure in this mission. If it didn't take an Ideya of Courage to create _you_ , I would dispose of you."

He threw her across his chambers, and Nights slammed into one of the pillars that lined the walls. "Get out of my sight, and tell Reala that I want him to procure that Ideya for me immediately."

Nights struggled to get airborne, her back soaked with blood, and with a quick, "Yes, Master," she hurried out of his chambers.

When she arrived at Reala's domain, he had led her through the nearly-pitch main hall outside his throne room to a particular branching corridor, just one of numerous others. In one room of this corridor was where he kept his medical supplies. Nights sat on a stool, her purple sensors folded before her shoulders, while Reala cleaned and treated her wounds. She detailed to him the events of her day since they had last met, in tears by the end. She deliberately left out the part where she had told the Visitor that she desired to live more than she desired his Ideya—she condensed that into "begging" for her life.

"It is just so infuriating! As if I _hadn't_ risked my life for that Courage Ideya!" she complained, wiping her wet cheek with one glove. She winced a little when Reala rubbed some ointment into her deep back wound, but its numbing effects were quick to occur.

"What a horrific experience. Master wants me to wrestle with a lucid with that much power?" Nervousness crept at the edge of Reala's voice.

"He hardly allowed me to explain that much. He just called me a contemptible slave and sent me off with _that_." Nights pointed jerked her thumb to her back. "That was the worst part of it, I think. I wanted him to be proud of me, but this failure ruined that."

Reala pressed some gauze to her back and rolled the bandages around her torso, stopping at her front side. "Master Wizeman does have high standards. Even an understandable failure is a huge mark against you—and that counts for every one of us."

"I know… but one day, I really want to do something that will impress him. Make him see that I'm valuable, too."

"Well." Nights lifted her indigo gaze to her partner's face. His light blue eyes crinkled at the corners. "If it means anything, I'm proud of you. You stood up to a lucid and lived to tell about it. That is very impressive. Besides that, you're incomparable to the other cretinous Nightmarens we give orders to; that fact alone should make you feel distinguished."

She couldn't help but smile, and his faint beam grew. "You're right. It should. And I guess it does, a bit."

"Good." Reala took one of her hands and helped her ease up off the stool. "Can you move a little better than earlier?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. I left an outline of some plans in the usual spot. While I'm out, please look over them."

Nights bobbed her head. "Of course. And Reala?"

He paused and turned before he could reach for the door.

"Be careful. You know what that Visitor is capable of."

"I will do my best," said the red general. He held the door open for Nights, and the two separated in the main corridor.

* * *

 **I do not own NiGHTS, Reala, Wizeman, or any related characters. They are property of Yuji Naka and their additional respective owners. This fanfiction story was written for the nonprofit purpose of entertaining my fellow fans.**

 **Also, I don't own Robot Unicorn either, though yeah, that part of the story was hella inspired by that ridiculous(ly entertaining) game from the adultswim website and Pik Pok.**

 **Yeah, putting my author's notes down here because I don't want to spoil people with my disclaimers of non-ownership.**


	2. Chapter 2

The hallways in Puffy's mansion were bedazzled in decorations. Gold candle-holders were hooked on the cream-colored walls in perfect intervals, their cinnamon candles unlit. Instead the dim light came from a lamp suspended from the ceiling by a gold chain. In between each pair of candles stood a marble bust of the Second Level Nightmaren herself, long bunny ears towering over a round face with serious eyes and large, pouting lips. The eyes of each seemed to light up with white heat as Puffy led Nights through the halls, but with a periodic snap of her fingers, the hot glares extinguished. The corridor seemed to spiral in an ever so slight downward curve, until they reached a single tapestry of the ball-shaped Nightmaren spanning the entire end wall, her face ever noble, her outfit as bejeweled as her home.

Nights had seen this display before. With one leap, Puffy bounced up and tugged a single cord near the corner of the tapestry. The wall shuddered and swung inward towards a room alight with Ideya. Hundreds of glowing balls hovered in neat piles around the great storage room. In the high ceiling were air vents that automatically opened and shut for the occasional Third Level Nightmaren soldier who came in to add to the collection.

Puffy twirled about with one tiny hop, her fat arms spread in gesture. Her head held high, she gazed down at Nights with a smirk. "See for yourself, my liege," she said, using the Nightmaren native language. "As _usual_ , I am well ahead of schedule."

Nights glided to each pile, organized by color, and counted each in rapid succession. After a quick bit of mental adding, she nodded. "Very impressive, Puffy. Keep up the good work."

"Of course! I expect nothing less than the best from my minions. Let me see you out— I must reactivate my traps, anyway."

After she had returned to Nightmare proper, Nights removed a sheet of paper from her vest and touched it with a finger. The number of Ideya that Puffy had collected so far appeared on the magic sheet next to the Second Leveler's name. She read over it again: so far, her assigned Second Levelers had been present to provide proof of their Ideya progress. Everyone's work was sufficient for this early in the night-cycle, with Puffy being the only stand-out today. Only two names remained on her list of underlings she needed to check.

Nights glided through the darkness of Nightmare until she arrived at Gillwing's domain. It was a lonely spot of jiggling plant life amid a black sky dotted with stars and four reddish suns. The mushrooms, mosses, and cup-shaped lilies were alight with their own rainbow glow, all encircling an odd green-and-yellow structure that wiggled under a rotating blue star. Other rocks floated in place high above the ground, topped with moss. Beyond the psychedelic plants, other plant life was dim, swallowed up by surrounding blackness that seemed to stretch into forever. It was impossible to tell from where she floated if the area was an island or an expanse of flat land.

At the moment, the tadpole-dragon was not flying around his territory.

"Gillwing!" Nights called. Her voice hardly echoed. She placed a cupped hand to the side of her purple sensor. Silence.

She took in a breath to sigh. This was a waste of time—a short one, but a waste nonetheless. She floated over to the swaying green-and-yellow structure and used a bit of magic to mark it with a diamond shape. That was her symbol, distinct from Reala's, to let Gillwing know that it was she who had been here. If he came back from wherever he was while Nights was out finishing her rounds, he would wait by the entrance for her return to give his report.

That done, Nights left the area and gave her sheet a quick glance-over. The last name on her sheet was Girania's. She chuckled. "One of our babies is working, finally. Let's see how well you've been doing since Selph's training."

Her next trip through Nightmare was not a long one. Grayish dust hung in the air of this new domain. A massive branched candelabra stood surrounded by six crumbled stone pillars rose up in the center of the circular arena, illuminating the area with a dozen green flames. The dust cleared, and Nights's eyes widened when she saw Gillwing hovering in the air nearby, fanning away the dust with his scaly wings. "Gillwing! What are you doing here?" she demanded.

His green-and-blue scales gleaming in the light of the flames, the long-bodied dragon flew in small circles, scanning all directions. His yellow glare met Nights's gaze for just a second, but he did not acknowledge her. She glided closer to him, shouting, "Gillwing, I'm speaking to you—"

The cobblestone floor a dozen meters below spewed gray powder and sizable boulders, and Nights had to drill-dash with all her might towards the green torches before the largest maw she'd ever seen could clamp shut around her. She covered her head to avoid the falling stone debris, barely glancing up as a massive fish straightened itself out in mid air. Gillwing's headless body fell to the cobblestone ground, wriggling like a worm caught on a sidewalk after a rainfall.

The giant fish's back and tail fin were lined in metal spikes, and he wore a gladiator helmet. He spat out a mouthful of sparkling particles, grumbling in a voice as large as his stature, "YUCK. DREAM DUST."

Nights tilted her head and body way back just to look up at him. "Girania? That's you, right?" She hadn't had the chance to meet him before today, though she and Reala had been alerted of his creation by Master Wizeman not long ago.

Girania turned around in the air, looking here and there. "WHO SAID THAT."

"Down here!" She began to fly up to catch his attention, but Gillwing's roar shook pebbles from the stony pillars and walls. Nights banked sharply to the left and was face to face with Gillwing—for all of one second. One of his wings slapped her away, knocking headfirst into one of the boulders that made up the floor.

Nights landed on her back, a ringing noise persisting in her head even through a thundering explosion and spark of white light. With effort, she opened her eyes to see Gillwing bumping away hundreds of brightly-colored bubbles with his wings, a triumphant grin on his face. She growled and turned over to get to her feet, rubbing her pounding head. " _Gillwing!_ "

The dragon flew down towards her and landed on the ground without an ounce of grace. He curled his long body about his massive frog-like head and folded his wings. "Hello, Nights."

"That's _Liege_ Nights to you," snapped the First Level Nightmaren. "Why are you even here? What bone do you have to pick with Girania?"

The colorful balls began to merge with one another, and in another bright gleaming light, Girania had returned. Nights had to lift her arms and cover the bases of her sensors as best as she could when the giant fish cried, " _I'LL KILL YOU!_ "

This time, Nights was too slow to avoid his massive mouth.

Encased by hot darkness, she was smashed up against boulders, fangs as large as watermelons, and Gillwing's rough hide. Everything inside Girania's mouth jerked from one hard cheek to the other and back again. Rocks rammed into her body, aggravating the back wound she had received from Master Wizeman not four days beforehand, making her cry out in the echoless chamber. Tremors from Girania's movements rattled her body. More often than not, Nights was caught in the sticky saliva of the giant piranha's tongue, and when she found herself face-down on it, she sank her teeth into it. The tongue shrank back towards the throat, followed by Gillwing and the boulders, before the jaws opened, and Girania flung his prey towards the ground.

Wet and covered with bruises and gashes, the small purple Nightmaren managed to catch herself in the air before she hit the rocky floor again. Gillwing was not so lucky, and the impact against the ground dislodged his head from his body for the second time.

Nights drill-dashed upwards to be on eye-level with the massive gladiator-piranha. "Stop this right now!"

"OH, HELLO." Girania's round, yellow eyes were rimmed with pink and just longer in diameter than Nights was tall. His seeming lack of eyelids made his grin wild. "YOU MUST BE NIGHTS! SELPH TOLD ME ABOUT YOU."

Grimacing, the purple Nightmaren covered her sensors agaih. " _Liege_ Nights—"

"YOU LOOK HURT."

"There's no need to shout, young one!"

"I'M NOT SHOUTING."

"Then can you please talk more quietly?"

Girania lowered his voice to a notch above a whisper, which was much more bearable. "Okay. Sorry, Liege Nights."

Nights folded her arms across her chest and asked, "Can you explain what's going on to me?"

"NOT REALLY." The Second Leveler jumped just slightly before he went on in his lowered voice, "That Nightmaren just kind of showed up to my domain and began attacking me."

One semi-circular fin, like the center and surrounding spokes of a wagon wheel, flicked in the direction of Gillwing, who flapped the wings on his newly sprouted head. He gave a challenging shriek and made a beeline up for Girania.

Nights dove for the tadpole-dragon with lowered brows, seizing the tip of the single horn jutting from his head and pulling back at full strength. Gillwing bellowed and stopped in midair, wings still beating to keep himself airborne. The First Leveler hovered to be between her two underlings and growled, "I demand an explanation for this, Gillwing."

"ME, TOO! …Er, me, too!"

Gillwing narrowed his yellow eyes at Nights before he said, "It's real simple-like. Everybody knows I'm the biggest, most _fearsome_ Nightmaren in the Night Dimension. But then Girania came along and got the big idea to change all that! Thought I'd come over to give xir a taste of who I am so we don't have no problems later. Too bad xir big, _fat_ , TITLE-STEALING SELF happens to be a pretty good fighter, like me." The dragon ended his sentence with a grin of pride, his bottom row of fangs jutting up from his lip as always.

Girania started to growl in his throat, a sound that vibrated Nights's body, but she cut in before either could speak any further. "First of all, _enough_ with the shouting, both of you."

"Yes, Liege Nights," mumbled both behemoths, though they kept glowering at each other.

"Secondly, Gillwing, you're an idiot. You haven't been the most fearsome since Cerberus's creation. They're nearly two centuries older than I am, and even I know that!"

"Cerberus ain't so tough…"

Nights went on as if he hadn't spoken. "Most importantly, you have caused a huge waste of time for all three of us! I needed a progress report from you before I came here; meanwhile, instead of doing something actually productive, you're here harassing Girania and ensuring xe can't do anything productive, either. Not only that, but you refuse to acknowledge me with respect when I've tried to get your attention and make you stop fighting.

"Such behavior is unacceptable, Gillwing. You'd better get back to your domain. And you can bet your tail spines that Master Wizeman is going to hear of this."

Grumbling under his breath, he turned and flew out of the domain with Nights's angry blue eyes on his back.

Girania asked in the smallest voice he could muster, "And what about me, Liege Nights?"

Nights inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly to calm her nerves. She inquired, "You were just fighting back in self-defense, right?"

"Yup."

"Then you've done nothing wrong. I have come to get a progress report from you on your Ideya count."

"Oh, YEAH—Selph told me about that. My stash is right this way."

* * *

Nights returned to Wizeman's chambers, lowering to a bow once she'd entered. "I have completed my round of progress reports, Master."

"Proceed."

The purple Nightmaren drew the sheet of paper from her vest and gave him the numbers for each of her assigned underlings. She concluded, "Since increasing the volume of Third Level Nightmarens per Nightopian dream world last night cycle, everyone's Ideya count has jumped. Most of the Second Level Nightmarens have counts that meet their increased quota. Puffy continues to exceed it. Gillwing, however, has fallen short this report."

Wizeman's six eyes did not change expression. "Is that so?"

"Yes. Actually, Master, I found xir wasting time in Girania's domain today—xe felt as though xe needed to bully Girania because Girania's size makes xir feel insecure in his power. I had some trouble, but I managed to stop their fighting."

"Gillwing had better hope xe can make xir quota before the final count."

"Xe seemed confident of that, Master…" Nights hesitated before asking, "Is Gillwing due for disciplinary action?"

Wizeman scoffed. "Fool. You should be aware by now that it is not uncommon for those Second Level Nightmarens to quarrel amongst themselves for dominance. It is in their nature. As long as my quotas are being met each night-cycle, their squabbles do not matter to me."

Nights blinked. "Yes, Master."

"You need to get to work on your own Ideya quota as well, Nights. Do not waste your time with senseless trifles from now on."

"Yes, Master, right away."

She hustled out of his chambers and out of Nightmare to get to work. Under her breath, she cussed at herself. Nights new that Third Levelers were prone to fighting with each other—they often killed each other or produced eggs on accident. They were disposable, not like the Second Levelers, who were each unique and very powerful. It would be bad news if one of them died. She thought breaking up the fight would be worthy of praise, or at least thanks.

As she picked out a Nightopian window, she shook her head. She should have known better than to waste her time.

* * *

 **If you're curious about why I switch between she/he and xe, it's because I headcanon that everything is genderless in native Nightmaren language—the closest equivalent that we have is "it" but for non-objects I'm choosing to use xe. Note that this only appears in 'maren dialogue. Is this too confusing? Should I just stick with one or the other from now on for consistency? Tell me in a review.**


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